The Box and Packaging
The box and packaging is fairly basic and comes with a user’s manual, an I/O shield, a pair of SATA cables, along with a drivers disc, as well as the graphics card holder.
The ASRock B550 PG Riptide Motherboard
Like most of ASRock’s other motherboards, it comes in an all-matte black finish and includes the highly visible x16 PCIE steel slot. It also includes a full cover M.2 Armor heat shield for the Hyper M.2 slot (PCIe Gen4 x4). The other Ultra M.2 slot (PCIe Gen3) and M.2 Wifi slots are uncovered.
A Closer Look
Won’t find any diagnostic LEDs, onboard power-on/reset or clear CMOS buttons. However, ASRock does include their Post Status Checker, which is easy troubleshooting LED that shows the CPU / DRAM / VGA / BOOT operation every time you start up the system.
Surprisingly, the motherboard comes with a total of 4 pin headers for RGB, yes 4! … 2 ARGB headers (5V) and 2 standard RGB headers (12V). I gues it’s for gamers who really love their RGB 😀
On closer inspection, you’ll find 1 x 8-pin and 1 x 4-pin power connectors for the motherboard. Having both connector plugged in allowd for extra power and stability during overclocking.
The ASRock B550 PG Riptide comes with a load of connectivity options for the rear I/O. There’s mounting brackets for your Wifi anntennas, HDMI port, Lightning Gaming Ports, USB 3.0, USB 3.2 (both Type-A and Type-C), PS/2 keyboard and mouse connector, more UB 3.2 ports, Killer E3100X 2.5GB LAN and an arrany of audio connectors.
